Rudin taps Roybal prez

Exec replaces Aversano as topper

While producer Scott Rudin continues his slow transition away from Paramount to a new deal at Disney, he has found a new president in company veteran Mark Roybal.

Roybal replaces Scott Aversano as prexy of Scott Rudin Prods. Aversano left late last year for a first-look deal at Par.

Roybal took a job as a Rudin intern in 1995 and rose through the ranks.

While heading Rudin’s lit department in Gotham, he oversaw the acquisition of books including Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections” (David Hare is adapting for Paramount), Chang-Rae Lee’s “Aloft” for Warner Bros. (Steve Conrad adapted it), Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” for Par and WB (Eric Roth adapted) and the Cormac McCarthy novel “No Country for Old Men,” which the Coen brothers are directing for Par Vantage and Miramax.

Roybal is currently producing “Stop Loss,” which begins lensing in July under director Kimberly Peirce, and is working on a remake of “The Blob” scripted by Chad and Carey Hayes and an untitled drama by “Ghost World” writer Daniel Clowes about three youths who made a shot-by-shot remake of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in their hometown.